The Rolling Stones turn 50 (updated)

The Rolling Stones, with (l. to r.) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts, mark the 50th anniversary of their first-ever live performance on 12 July 1962 at the Marquee club in London. (The lineup did not include Wood or Watts.) The group played their first show at the club on July 12, 1962, under the name The Rollin' Stones, hastily chosen as the band's name from a song by their blues hero Muddy Waters. (AP Photo / Rankin)

This has been updated. Check out the last quote.T

“It is quite amazing when you think about it,” Mick Jagger recently told Rolling Stone, reflecting on the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones first show on July 12th, 1962 at London’s Marquee Jazz Club. “But it was so long ago. Some of us are still here, but it’s a very different group than the one that played 50 years ago.”

The Stones are well past their peak, but what a peak it was . The
5 album streak of Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers,
Get Your Ya Ya’s Out and Exile on Main Street was never, and
will never ,be matched for greatness by any band again. The
Beatles were more creative, but The Stones had the hooks.

I saw the Stones at some point – late 80s, early 90s; I’m guessing it was that same one Jango saw at Foxboro. Was that the Steel Wheels Tour? It’s all so cloudy now … but I do remember it was an awesome, awesome show. I remember Mick scaled some scaffolding or tower or something and he was way above the crowd belting out Sympathy for the Devil. Whenever they showed a close-up of him on the jumbotron, my one friend kept yelling out that Mick looked just like David Letterman! I don’t know exactly what my bud was smoking but I think it musta been some pretty good stuff – Mick did have kinda short hair that day, but Letterman?

Fun thing to do is to go to You Tube and watch some old Stones videos (She’s so Cold, Emotional Rescue, or even much earlier stuff). It’s funny seeing them look so youthful.

#5: I agree with your album choices. They were the best work of “The Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Band in the World”, and they stand well above all others in history within their genre. Regarding the Beatles, I have to give them the ultimate nod based upon all-around versatility–how about the unbroken string from Rubber Soul through Let it Be? The Stones tried to mimic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band with “Her Satanic Majesty’s Request” and it may have succeeded as parody, but even with Brian Jones’ creative input it didn’t measure up.